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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: The existing investments for my other grandson are shown above. Please rank his investments for long term growth. Best wishes for the Holiday Season.
Read Answer Asked by Don on December 16, 2024
Q: Writing in again because I keep hesitating about how to start a high growth all equity portfolio..

For context, I am 39 years of age, with a comfortable income, and planning on working about 25 years. This would be for retirement money.

You previously answered you would be comfortable with an SP500 index fund as VFV of SPY as opposed to an all in one equity fund such as VEQT or XEQT, from what I understood.

Can you please suggest a porfolio of 5 to 7 all equity ETFs that you believe to be superior to the all in one variety. I don’t necessarily care about the truisms about absolutely needing to be geographically diverse. And I certainly prefer to avoid Canadian home bias.

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Karim on July 29, 2024
Q: Apologies if this has been answered previously. This is a follow up to Ross’ question about these one stop shop ETFs. You mention, in this particular answer, that you consider them to be ‘more than acceptable’.

Assuming one doesn’t mind complicating their lives a little, what would be your optimal all-equity ETF portfolio for an aggressive investor ?

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Karim on July 17, 2024
Q: Hi there - thanks for your reply. Just a follow up for clarification. You mentioned XEQT has exposure to fixed income which you noted as a reason for a better etf for long term hold, but I think both XEQT and XWD are approximately 100% in equities, with a different approach to geographical weighting. Does this change your recommendation of XEQT over XWD long term? Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on June 05, 2024
Q: Hi there - between these 2 etfs, which would you consider the better buy hold forever etf? Is there a better buy a hold forever etf other than these 2?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on June 05, 2024
Q: I would appreciate your general comments regarding these two ETFs, in particular with regard to these as a long term hold for my nephew at age 30. That person also intends to have other funds invested in more speculative, higher risk equities (play money!)
1) Are these a safe hold that should increase in value with general market appreciation over the years?
2) Would you believe the current dividend is sustainable?
3) Are there other options in the ETF world that you might recommend for a long term hold?
4) Again for a long term hold would you prefer something along the lines of buying equities directly, with something like holding one of your portfolios, knowing that he will not be paying much attention to these investments.
Thanks! Paul
Read Answer Asked by Paul on April 12, 2024
Q: Further to my prior question, in looking at ETFs, I often thought why not just buy their top holdings, and that is quite often what I do. However, in trying to find out that info for these two I noticed something I thought was unusual.

For example, the XEQT ETF lists holdings as follows ...
iShares Core S&P Total US Stock Market ... 44.8%
iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI ETF ... 24.96%
iShares Core S&P/TSX Capped Compost ETF ... 24.86%
iShares Core MSCI Emer Mkts IMI ETF ... 4.97%

This seems to be the total of their holdings (99.59%). I assume these also generate management fees, which seems like an approach to increase fees paid by "layering" their offerings!
Would a person not be generally better off just buying the 4 separately in the percentages to match the XEQT ETF?
... or possibly digging deepr in the layer and finding out what equities they really are holding?
Thanks! Paul
Read Answer Asked by Paul on April 12, 2024
Q: Morning
Which etf would you recommend for US exposure and why. Please rate them from 1-4
ZSP
VFV
VGG
XUS
Also thoughts on XEQT for all round exposure
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Michael on April 09, 2024
Q: Good morning,

In one response to a question on the choice of a International exposure ETF, the 5i preference was VEQT, XEQT and XWD in that order.

Q1. Has you opinion of the order of these Global ETFs changed in any way and given XWD's 5 and 10 year performance?

Q2. Would you kindly explain your rational for ranking XWD ahead of VEQT and XEQT and even HEQT.

Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing your response.
Read Answer Asked by Francesco on March 13, 2024
Q: Hi there,

Can I please get your opinion on HEQT. The asset allocation looks to be different from VEQT and XEQT with its NASDAQ exposure. Do you suspect that over a long period (ie: multiple decades), this will help this etf outperform? How would you rate it relative to VEQT and XEQT?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on December 22, 2023
Q: Hi there, there are many "all in one" etfs to pick from these days. If a person wanted to have a super simple portfolio, what would be your favourite (or the best) ETF to hold to gain 100% equity exposure that would require the least amount of maintenance? I know there is XEQT, VEQT, XAW, VXC, XWD, HGRO and many more. What would be your favourite? (Does not have to appear on the ones I have listed)

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on August 02, 2023
Q: Hi there,

The majority of my portfolio is held in XEQT. If I wanted to increase US exposure from 45% to 60%, in your opinion would to be best to layer in a hedged or unhedged US etf, considering XEQT already holds unhedged US exposure?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on August 01, 2023
Q: My daughter is planning to start a new TFSA (full $88K) and contemplating the following:
Option#1, Autopilot All in one global index fund, such as XEQT or VEQT.
Option#2, All in Canadian equity index fund, such as XIU or XIC added to XEQT or VEQT.
Option#3, 5i favourite picks, such as BN, GSY, DSG, TFII, TOI and WSP .
Please advise which option is best for a buy and hold long term TFSA investment or suggest a better alternate. Thank you. Bill.
Read Answer Asked by Bill on March 13, 2023
Q: Hi there, I hold a large amount of my portfolio in these broad based ETFs. I have about 30% in cash. At these levels, would you be adding to these indexes for a long term hold? How likely do you think it is that we would see SPY at 3300 to 3400 range? What would your strategy be to deploy my cash position into equities? Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on June 14, 2022
Q: There seem to be a number of CAD Hedged NASDAQ 100 ETF options. Which one(s) would you recommend for a couple of young investors, both of whom will be making regular, small contributions - one to an unregistered account and one to an RRSP? Was thinking of pairing with XEQT as both are looking for 100% equity exposure (in CAD). Your thoughts on this or other suggestions to pair with the NASDAQ 100 that may be more suitable would be appreciated. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Bruce on November 12, 2021